


Badger

by stereolightning (phalaenopsis)



Series: The R/T Fics [12]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-23
Updated: 2013-09-23
Packaged: 2017-12-27 09:17:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 436
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/977068
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phalaenopsis/pseuds/stereolightning
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Tonks attempts to knit a baby hat.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Badger

Dora's love of kitsch reached heretofore unscaled heights in February. Remus knew she kept a rainbow of Guatemalan worry dolls on the nightstand and transfigured the upholstery a different color every other week, but maybe hormones amplified her natural affinity for novelty. Because for the second afternoon in a row, she tucked her socked feet under his elbow, sprawled across the violently chartreuse sofa, and attempted to knit a baby cap with round badger ears and black badger stripes.

 _This is what comes of marrying a Hufflepuff,_ said Sirius' voice in Remus' head. _Badger hats._

Remus suppressed a smile and prepared his notes for Potterwatch.

Dora turned her knitting pattern upside down, brows pointed in thought. “Merlin's _pants_ ,” she said.

She had lately curbed her habit of swearing, for the baby. Under any other circumstances, she would have said “bollocks,” or possibly “shit.”

He squeezed her toes affectionately. Her socks had mermaids on them. The pretty, tropical kind, not the grey-skinned, shark-like kind that prowled the lake at Hogwarts. “Trouble, my love?”

“Oh, I purled when I shouldn't have done. I'll have to rip the whole thing out and start again.”

He appraised the gaping loops and doubled-back stitches of her impossibly shoddy knitting. “You really weren't kidding about household spells not being your strong suit, were you?”

“No. I wasn't. And apparently knitting falls under the purview of household spells as well. Merlin's PANTS.” She scrunched up her nose in frustration. Adorable. A – _Dora_ – ble. She really was.

“Allow me to offer a second opinion,” he said.

“S'harder than it looks,” she said.

“When you have mended as many hems and patched as many cloaks as I have...”

“You have got a steady hand.” She poured the soft Gordian knot into his outstretched palm and leaned back against the arm of the sofa.

He handed her his notes. “Here,” he said. “This needs an Auror's diligent eyes. Please be ruthless.”

She grinned, eyes volleying left and right across the parchment, and summoned her quill. She scribbled – passionate, alive, the fronds of her quill swift as a ship's sails tacking in high wind. Meanwhile, he unbound her knots and smoothed out her jagged mats of wool.

“You do realize that we'll have to make a lion hat as well. For balance,” he said.

“Yeah. Alright,” she mumbled, plainly too engaged in politics and copyediting to worry about something so trivial as a Gryffindor baby hat.

The Sirius inside Remus' head smirked at him. But the Lily inside his head understood completely.

Remus was glad they were there, even if they were always just out of sight.


End file.
